Changing Employment Practices in the New Zealand Telecommunications Sector: Workforce Reorganisation and Restructuring at Telecom New Zealand

In line with the large-scale reforms instituted by the New Zealand government in the 1980s, the New Zealand post office was broken up and a state owned enterprise (SO£), the Telecom Corporation of New Zealand (TCNZ), was formed in 1987. In 1990 TCNZ was fully privatised with the major shareholders, Bell Atlantic and Ameritech, being US owned companies. There followed a decade of organisational and structural change. Between 1990 and 2000 the fulltime workforce at TCNZ was reduced from 16 000 to less than 6000 fulltime workers as the firm evolved into a new leaner model (TCNZ annual reports). Such workforce reductions were largely achieved through outsourcing and the introduction of new technologies. But the scale of downsizing at TCNZ raises questions about the possible loss of core knowledge and the long-term sustainability of these strategies. Transaction costs associated with 'relationship management' -such as, the coordination and monitoring of outsourced work - may also reduce their effectiveness. This paper draws on transaction costs economics (TCE) and downsizing theories to help explain why firms may choose to either outsource their transactions to the marketplace or perform them in-house. It further examines what the implications of TCE may be for employment relations (ER). This paper suggests that a number of additional factors outside of the traditional TCE analysis also contributed to the restructuring and ER strategies at TCNZ. These included, short-term profit considerations, the size of the New Zealand telecommunications market, TCNZ's continued dominance of its domestic market and the desire to form strategic alliances. Therefore, these additional factors may need to be integrated into the TCE framework if it is to provide a possible model that will assist in analysing the changing workforce structure at TCNZ since deregulation

Changing Employment Practices in the New Zealand Telecommunications Sector: Workforce Reorganisation and Restructuring at Telecom New Zealand

In line with the large-scale reforms instituted by the New Zealand government in the 1980s, the New Zealand post office was broken up and a state owned enterprise (SO£), the Telecom Corporation of New Zealand (TCNZ), was formed in 1987. In 1990 TCNZ was fully privatised with the major shareholders, Bell Atlantic and Ameritech, being US owned companies. There followed a decade of organisational and structural change. Between 1990 and 2000 the fulltime workforce at TCNZ was reduced from 16 000 to less than 6000 fulltime workers as the firm evolved into a new leaner model (TCNZ annual reports). Such workforce reductions were largely achieved through outsourcing and the introduction of new technologies. But the scale of downsizing at TCNZ raises questions about the possible loss of core knowledge and the long-term sustainability of these strategies. Transaction costs associated with 'relationship management' -such as, the coordination and monitoring of outsourced work - may also reduce their effectiveness. This paper draws on transaction costs economics (TCE) and downsizing theories to help explain why firms may choose to either outsource their transactions to the marketplace or perform them in-house. It further examines what the implications of TCE may be for employment relations (ER). This paper suggests that a number of additional factors outside of the traditional TCE analysis also contributed to the restructuring and ER strategies at TCNZ. These included, short-term profit considerations, the size of the New Zealand telecommunications market, TCNZ's continued dominance of its domestic market and the desire to form strategic alliances. Therefore, these additional factors may need to be integrated into the TCE framework if it is to provide a possible model that will assist in analysing the changing workforce structure at TCNZ since deregulation

Utilisation of pharmacy-based sexual and reproductive health services : a quantitative retrospective study

Objectives: To explore the utilisation of pharmacy-based sexual and reproductive health services (SRHS) in order to optimise delivery and identify barriers to access. Methods: The health provider Umbrella offers six SRHS from over 120 pharmacies in Birmingham (England). In this retrospective study, data collected between August 2015 and August 2018 were used to analyse uptake, user characteristics and attendance patterns according to day of the week. Results: A total of 60 498 requests for a pharmacy service were included in the analysis. Emergency contraception (50.4%), condoms (33.1%) and STI self-sampling kits (9.6%) accounted for more than 90% of all requests. A lower uptake of services was observed for the contraceptive injection (0.6%), oral contraception (5.4%) and chlamydia treatment (1.0%). Services were most likely to be requested by those self-identifying as female (85.6%), and those aged 16–24 years (53.8%). Based on available ethnicity data (n=54 668), most requests for a service were made by White/White British individuals (43.4%) and Asian/Asian British people (23.1%). The largest number of services were delivered on Mondays (20.9%) and the lowest on Sundays (5.0%). A high proportion of requests for services on Saturdays (57.0%), Sundays (67.6%) and Mondays (54.4%) were made by females presenting for emergency contraception. Conclusion: The evaluation of healthcare utilisation is important to help refine and optimise the delivery of services. However, information relating to pharmacy-based SRHS is scarce and often limited to a single type of service provision. Overall, a wide range of pharmacy-based services were accessed by a diverse range of people, suggesting that pharmacies are a suitable provider of many SRHS. However, the routinely collected data analysed in the study had several limitations restricting the analysis. Sexual health providers should ensure they collect data which are as comprehensive as is possible in order to help understand the utilisation of services

Identity dynamics as a barrier to organizational change

This article seeks to explore the construction of group and professional identities in situations of organizational change. It considers empirical material drawn from a health demonstration project funded by the Scottish Executive Health Department, and uses insights from this project to discuss issues that arise from identity construction(s) and organizational change. In the course of the project studied here, a new organizational form was developed which involved a network arrangement with a voluntary sector organization and the employment of “lay-workers” in what had traditionally been a professional setting. Our analysis of the way actors made sense of their identities reveals that characterizations of both self and other became barriers to the change process. These identity dynamics were significant in determining the way people interpreted and responded to change within this project and which may relate to other change-oriented situations

Illusions of gunk

The possibility of gunk has been used to argue against mereological nihilism. This paper explores two responses on the part of the microphysical mereological nihilist: (1) the contingency defence, which maintains that nihilism is true of the actual world; but that at other worlds, composition occurs; (2) the impossibility defence, which maintains that nihilism is necessary true, and so gunk worlds are impossible. The former is argued to be ultimately unstable; the latter faces the explanatorily burden of explaining the illusion that gunk is possible. It is argued that we can discharge this burden by focussing on the contingency of the microphysicalist aspect of microphysical mereological nihilism. The upshot is that gunk-based arguments against microphysical mereological nihilism can be resisted

Restoration of SMN in Schwann cells reverses myelination defects and improves neuromuscular function in spinal muscular atrophy

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a neuromuscular disease caused by low levels of SMN protein, primarily affecting lower motor neurons. Recent evidence from SMA and related conditions suggests that glial cells can influence disease severity. Here, we investigated the role of glial cells in the peripheral nervous system by creating SMA mice selectively overexpressing SMN in myelinating Schwann cells (Smn(−/−);SMN2(tg/0);SMN1(SC)). Restoration of SMN protein levels restricted solely to Schwann cells reversed myelination defects, significantly improved neuromuscular function and ameliorated neuromuscular junction pathology in SMA mice. However, restoration of SMN in Schwann cells had no impact on motor neuron soma loss from the spinal cord or ongoing systemic and peripheral pathology. This study provides evidence for a defined, intrinsic contribution of glial cells to SMA disease pathogenesis and suggests that therapies designed to include Schwann cells in their target tissues are likely to be required in order to rescue myelination defects and associated disease symptoms

A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Self‐Regulation Intervention for Older Adults with Asthma

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98408/1/jgs12218.pd